Clerks: The Animated Series

Share.

If you don't buy this I will punch you.

By IGN Staff

I get a lot of venom from Kevin Smith fans for being absolutely frank about his work. I think he's one of the most talented writers around (and like other talent David Mamet, his words are sometimes a lot better on paper than onscreen) and have met him a few times (including the infamous "movie webmasters" panel at the San Diego Comic Con last year), so I'm not just some bag of hot air.

His stuff is funny as hell (and his talent may very well have been best realized in his run on the Daredevil comic a few years back), but I think he still hasn't found his bearings as a director. DOGMA, to me was a brilliant script that absolutely fell flat on screen, though I have a feeling the new DVD will shine if it ever comes out.

CLERKS was a film I thought was kind of cool, but one I never really fell in love with. That was my main reason for not getting too excited about the cartoon.

Well, this little 2 disc set took me by surprise and I have to tell anyone and everyone that they should be part of the nation's punched if they skip this one.

"Hand me the $%#%in' keys you *&*#&sucker mother^#^%%!"

The Movie (TV Show)

If you're not familiar with CLERKS, it's the story of a few retail employees who could care less and the surrounding characters they interact with (including the notorious Jay and Silent Bob).

The TV series is an extension of that, only a lot better (in my book). What they lose in vulgarity they gain in visuals. Smith's one drawback was his visual storytelling, and here the sky's the limit so the gloves are off.

What I found the case was that the trappings of network TV forced the gang to be more crafty and subtle in their humor and like THE SIMPSONS they shine.

A car full of MIDGETS!

Dante, Randall, Silent Bob, Jay, and the show's "villain" (voiced by my fave, Alec Baldwin) Leonardo deal with masturbation, homosexuality, porn, racial issues, disability, the movie biz, and whatever else comes their way with an onslaught of humor, subtle (and not too subtle) reference, and a very vibrant mixture of great animation and voice work (featuring guests like James Woods, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judge Reinhold, Gilbert Gottfried, and Charles Barkley).

A cut scene from THE EDGE 2.

From the fake sitcom intros ("this show was drawn in front of a live studio audience") to the jabs at popular culture (coffee bars, Star Wars, etc.) to great movie spoofs (Indy 2, JFK, and the immortal Schindler's List/Flintstones parody) it's exactly what you'd expect from Smith.

Clever, ballsy, and WAY TOO GOOD for the idiot box. If these aired on HBO we'd be seeing this sucker run a lot longer than 2nd rate stuff like ARLI$$.

There are few better things than a jab at Pokemon.

There are six episodes in here, only two of which saw the air. They all have merit and the running time of all combined equals that of a feature length film so you can watch these in one sitting (Smith also reveals they are making an ANIMATED MOVIE at the very end of the commentary!!!!!), so there's no reason not to watch them in order so all the running jokes (the falling pot, the giggling girls, Leonardo's feeble New Jersey domination plans) can be appreciated.

The honorable Judge Reinhold.

I don't like TV too often and find it very hard to weed out the good stuff.

A few gems:

The Pokemon spoof. Holy cow, this is hilarious. The last third of an episode is done in Pokemon style complete with pointless dance numbers, animals there for no reason, and transforming robots (including the one I picture at the bottom where a robot transforms from a car back into a robot, KILLING THE PASSENGERS). Funny.

The "Outbreak" episode, with a great job by James Woods and no shortage of laughs.

Randall's tenure as the bride of a mail order husband.

Judge Reinhold!

The little league game with the rescued slaves (from the Indy 4 spoof). How did they get away with this?

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY great stuff and fans and non-fans of Kevin Smith can dig it. Buy this DVD or I will send out a puncher.

9 out of 10

No caption needed.

Hard to believe this is from CLERKS, eh?

The Video

OK, it's TV so I excuse the fullscreen-ness of it all. Grudgingly.

The most terrifically overused gag in the series.

Otherwise it's clean as a bell and crisp as can be. Vibrant use of color (though not excessive) makes it a very attractive disc. Easily the nicest Smith DVD yet.

That's Alec Baldwin on the right!

8 out of 10

The Audio

Nothing too fancy here, but the Dolby 5.1 track is nice and there is some really fun usage of sound FX here. The music is good, though this isn't the kind of animated stuff you use to show off your system. It's a character and dialogue driven show and while it's certainly quite good (not as much use of the soundstage as I'd like), you cannot compare it to stuff like TITAN A.E. which is built on spectacle.

8 out of 10

The Extras

OH YEAH!

This is always the main reason to buy Kevin Smith stuff on DVD. Even though the films are good enough on their own right, he really GIVES to his fans.

There's a commentary track for each episode (all laden with humor, jabs at the studio for canning the show after 2 episodes, and SO MUCH MORE) with Smith, Jason "Jay" Mewes, Brian "Dante" O'Halloran, Jeff "Randall" Anderson, and show creators Scott Mosier, Dave Mandel, and Chris Baily. PRICELESS.

Jay and Silent Bob introduce each episode in some fairly raunchy live action intros, which is never bad.

Sometimes graffiti is good.

There's a nice featurette on the development of the look of the show and its characters which is pretty sharp and it clues you in to more reasons why we should see this on TV instead of the overload of crap we normally have to wade through.

Brilliant. a car transforms back into a robot, LIQUEFYING THE PASSENGERS!

There's a few promos, animatics, use of the ANGLE feature on your DVD player and some actual SMART DVD-ROM stuff.

More reasons why you must buy this. Now.

10 out of 10

This is one of my very favorite members of my collection now. That's saying a lot. Way to go, gang. Priceless stuff.

Nick Nunziata wants more of this show. Now, even if it means the bloody death of Regis and the castmembers of "Survivor". Actually, ESPECIALLY if it includes the bloody death of Regis and the castmembers of "Survivor".